Application of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Large-Scale Mapping of Thermokarst Landforms

thermokarst refers to cryogenic processes, as a result of which characteristic relief forms are formed, as a result of melting of icy frozen soils or an ice complex. The study of the dynamics and distribution of modern thermokarst forms is important from the point of view of using them as one of the main indicators of the degradation of permafrost soils. In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles, which can create orthorectified images and digital terrain models (DTM) with very high spatial resolution, have been actively used to study thermokarst. This article provides an example of the use of UAVs in the study of the development of thermokarst in s. Uncure. Based on landscape-geomorphological studies and decoding of the created orthophotomap, the areas of thermokarst development were identified. The total land area covered by thermokarst is 0.66 km², which is 19.5% of the territory of the settlement. According to the classification of P.A. Solovyov, two types of thermokarst relief were distinguished here: bylary and alasy. The largest area is covered by bylars, which are the initial stage of the formation of Alas. They are formed as a result of melting of the upper part of revein ice and form a polygonal-lowland microrelief. More than 6,000 elementary polygons with a total area of 0.4 km² were discovered here. The landfill area varies from 6 m2 to 223 m², and the average area is 57 m². They are formed by local areas throughout the area of the village.